Facing an Ancient God for a Year

Chapter 2126: Chapter 2121: Blood and Sand

The grandeur lies in the artistic conception, not simply in piling up scenes.

Although surrounded by a dense fog just a little farther away, one can almost conclude that the scope of this nightmare is limited to a circle around the ruins.

The content itself, with its uniquely characteristic undulating curves, is strikingly astounding, evoking a sense of personally treading on ancient ground.

And the ruins ahead are deeply buried in one of these rises.

Furthermore, though it’s clearly underwater, the area in front of the exit is like a holiday beach, surrounded by a swath of flat red fine sand, offering an even more bizarre sense of contrast.

Then the sand layer is noticeably thick, so much so that it naturally floods into the lower terrain of the ruins.

The native inhabitants who ceaselessly move stone tablets to block and unblock doors could hardly imagine such a scene outside.

At that moment, Fu Qian sighed in his heart.

Even for the two of them, this discovery was admittedly somewhat eerie.

It’s the sea, but crafted in an extremely realistic manner, yet lifeless.

Is this considered having found or not found the Sea of Souls after all?

”These sands seem to serve a protective role, isolating destruction beyond.”

At this, the Witch, who had caught up beside him, also remarked while gazing at the scene before them.

”It should be so; otherwise, they might not have even been able to maintain their previous state, which also acts as proof of being the Nightmare Power Core, right?”

Fu Qian agreed with this assessment.

Despite the bizarre appearance of the beach before them, this patch of red indeed creates the semblance of a moat.

The part beyond the red sand in the dreamscape isn’t entirely barren, and even resembles a real ocean with visible traces of numerous life forms.

Yet, the forms of these creatures almost directly embody what madness is.

There’s no shortage of giant remains, where the various mutated distortions of limbs are more apparent, with distinct marks of spreading special rot visible.

Of course, these are all in the past, now even the contamination itself has gone extinct.

It’s hard to imagine that the ruins they just saw could withstand such ravages.

If the Sea of Souls before them is indeed dead, the red sand seems to have carved out a safe zone within it, preserving a hint of vitality.

Although, according to previous understanding, if the people inside manage to open a passage, everything will be destroyed.

This place sure deserves the term ”abstract,” as it seemingly allows one to directly perceive the fragility of the Mental World.

”Up top.”

At this moment, the Witch spoke again, indicating for Fu Qian to follow her to a higher point on the back of the ruins.

”Alright.”

Fu Qian responded straightforwardly, taking the lead decisively.

Upon reaching the outside successfully, it seemed the Witch’s prior perceptual block had lifted, discovering more peculiar things—perhaps too peculiar?

In the blink of an eye, they had reached the top of the rock frame, where the sight before them even made Fu Qian find it highly intriguing—

A towering figure comparable to the earliest Negative Monument King, fully clad in vividly tactile armor, was down on one knee there.

Was this a case of clashing outfits?

Fu Qian found it hard to imagine that he could clash attire even after adopting such a look.

And without comparison, there’s no harm; compared to the excessively exquisite art style on himself, the opponent’s battle-ready momentum was far greater, not to mention they had a weapon.

In the armored right hand, there was a massive sword, heroic and immense relative to the body size.

Despite an imposing sight in a glance, the weapon seemed situated dangerously close, deeply embedded into the neck, seemingly chopping off at least half the head upon visual inspection.

And the endless red sand seemed emanating precisely from this point.

...

”His blood?”

After a close look, Fu Qian turned to confirm with the Witch.

This self-executing scene offered a direct answer to the source of the red sand.

”Exactly, maybe due to this place’s special nature, the form had some alteration, which should also be one of the reasons identifying it was difficult earlier.”

”Likewise, it must also be this form transformation that allows the backing force to maintain the sand’s appearance even after your complete annihilation.”

The latter nodded, even taking a moment for cross-verification with the previous situation.

”So, you tend to think this was once the Sea of Souls, and the nightmare’s specific nature is because it is condensed from ’seawater’?”

Though, in doing so, his prior actions now seemed like desecrating a corpse, Fu Qian remained guiltless.

”I haven’t seen a Sea of Souls, though the scene indeed closely resembles the outer reality, utter collapse, and decay... so I decidedly lean towards it being a reflection of doomsday at the mental level, what do you say?”

The Knight’s ability to summarize holds nothing short of impressive in the witch’s mind, who, without worry of causing some mislead, straightforwardly voiced her immature take.

”Regrettably, I have only glimpsed the Sea of Souls a few times, experiencing very little of it.”

Fu Qian sighed, naturally reminded of the second-class treatment owing to his status as an outsider all the while.

”However, all we’ve encountered inside the ruins, both beings and objects, were somewhat emotional.”

It wasn’t mere rambling; being wrapped in obsessions, with karma barriers lingering, in Fu Qian’s view, the ruins most lacked perhaps were the legendary ordinary heart——

Negative Monument Kings ceaselessly piling and unblocking obstacles, the thief’s fear of unlocking doors, shifting forms, and even a palpable upward yearning sensed from the stele...

All spotlighting extremism, invoking the legendary indomitable obsession refusing rebirth and reincarnation.

They were all the Sea of Souls’ condensation under ravaging, a twisted reflection of doomsday deep within human hearts, indeed a rather rational explanation.

”But surely not him, since even his blood belongs to foreign matters.”

The next moment, Fu Qian gestured toward the Armor, making a further addition.

At this point, their opinions had nearly converged, namely, this nightmare was very likely an embodiment of the Sea of Souls’ remnants.

But if so, the motives of the kneeling figure become rather mysterious.

The mere bloodshed achieving such a magnitude, the Armor’s master mustn’t be a simple character, seemingly at least a First Phase guy or so.

Then, during doomsday, rushing into the Sea of Souls and committing such self-slaughter, merely to help retain a smidge of vitality?

Theoretically, this possibility can’t be ruled out, but Fu Qian expressed his disbelief.

”He was indeed not, but now a question arises, what about beyond the blood?”

Agreeing with Fu Qian’s viewpoint, the Witch spoke while stepping forward, reaching for the heavy armor nearly her equal in height.

Click!

A gentle snap, the latter was surprisingly lifted off directly, with no motion throughout the process.

And that wasn’t the point; through the opened part, it was clear to see, the interior of the armor was entirely empty.

Interesting... is this the origin of this nightmare’s theme?

Fu Qian and the Witch exchanged a glance, and in the next moment, they simultaneously made a palm-up gesture.

”Blood Loss.”